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Robotics

Robot Boat Sails Into History By Finishing Atlantic Crossing (apnews.com) 42

An anonymous reader writes: For the first time an autonomous sailing robot has completed the Microtransat Challenge by crossing the Atlantic from Newfoundland, Canada to Ireland. The Microtransat has been running since 2010 and has seen 23 previous entries all fail to make it across. The successful boat, SB Met was built by the Norwegian company Offshore Sensing AS and is only 2 metres (6.5 ft) long. It completed the crossing on August 26th, 79 days and 5000 km (3100 miles) of sailing after departing Newfoundland on June 7th. Further reading: A Fleet of Sailing Robots Sets Out To Quantify the Oceans.
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Robot Boat Sails Into History By Finishing Atlantic Crossing

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  • No concrete barriers in the ocean?
  • Sure the Atlantic can be a tough place, but 79 days?

    Single-handed (human) record is 3 1/2 days...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • by careysub ( 976506 ) on Thursday September 06, 2018 @12:46PM (#57264890)

      This is a 2 meter vessel, not a large racing hull built to be fast (and nothing but fast). Using the page you link to, the most useful comparison would be the single-handed records, and the one from 1987 which was about 11.5 days was in a 26 meter hull! And this is the smallest vessel on the list. You are probably not going to get a 2 meter vessel to tear along at an average speed of 7.5 m/sec which would be needed for that 11.5 day crossing.

      • There have been a few sailboats in the 2 meter size range which have made the transatlantic crossing.
        • Hugo Vihlen aboard April Fool (1.8m) in 84 days in 1968, though technically he never finished since he was picked up by the USCG 6 miles offshore.
        • Tom MacNally aboard the Vera Hugh (1.64m) in 134 days in 1993.
        • Hugo Vihlen again aboard the Father's Day (1.62m) in 115 days in 1993.
        • Tom MacNally unsuccessfully attempted the trip again aboard a 1.19m craft in 1998. He passed away last year.

        Site with picture [microcruising.com]

    • Also note that the world speed record for a radio-controlled sailing vessel (which was also 2 meters long) is 157.65 km in 23 hours 42 min [guinnessworldrecords.com] in the milder waters of the Mediterranean. At that world record speed in a small RC boat this challenge would have taken 32 days.

      So 79 days in a boat not controlled by a human, and not limited to a 24 hour period, in the open waters of the Atlantic is not so shabby. The speed made good over that whole journey is 40% of that 24 hour record.

    • by arth1 ( 260657 )

      Sure the Atlantic can be a tough place, but 79 days?

      The Mayflower took 66 days to cross, and was much bigger.

  • ..."I rowboat".

    https://www.theonion.com/i-rowboat-1819583491

  • by starless ( 60879 ) on Thursday September 06, 2018 @01:46PM (#57265238)

    For the first time an autonomous sailing robot...

    From the linked article:
    https://www.apnews.com/f6d0e2a... [apnews.com]

    The Sailbuoy competed in the “unmanned” class, which allows operators to change its course along the way. There’s a separate “autonomous” class that prohibits any such communication.

  • Don't forget that indigenous robots have rights, too.

Whatever is not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry up is not nailed down. -- Collis P. Huntingdon, railroad tycoon

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